This invention relates to a seatbelt assembly employed in a vehicle, and in particular to a tongue assembly portion of a seatbelt assembly.
Seat belts in vehicles are used to restrain the occupants during vehicle impact events. Typically, the seat belt is arranged with a combination of a lap and shoulder belt, with the webbing extending through a tongue assembly for adjusting the amount of webbing between the portion extending across the lap and the portion extending across the torso of the vehicle occupant. While the webbing is adjustable between the lap and torso portions as one is putting-on the seat belt, during an impact event, the tongue assembly is generally configured to hold (i.e., lock) the webbing relative to each portion in order to fully support the vehicle occupant's lap and torso. Accordingly, it is desirable for the seat belt to provide good support for both the occupant's lap and the occupant's torso, and for the tongue to operate in such a way so as to assist in providing good support for both the lap and torso portions of the seat belt.